An 18th-Century Ghost Ship Was Discovered With The Captain’s Body Found Frozen At His Desk, Still Holding His Pen: Mystery Of The Octavius
An 18th-Century Ghost Ship Was Discovered With The Captain’s Body Found Frozen At His Desk, Still Holding His Pen. It was unknown when or how he died or how long the ghost ship had been adrift.
A ghost ship was found drifting 62 miles off the coast of the Philippines. When fishermen boarded the vessel, they discovered the mummified remains of the captain slumped over a desk near the radio. It looked like he might have been about to make a mayday call before he died.
It’s also possible he was simply sleeping and had a heart attack. There were no signs of foul play, and the cause of death is still unknown, though authorities believe he died of natural causes.
“It is still a mystery to us,” Mark Navales, the deputy police chief of Barobo in the Philippines, told AFP.
How long the man had been dead and how long the 40-foot yacht, reported as Sayo (or Sajo, according to Barobo Police), had been drifting are among the mysteries.
The man was identified as Manfred Fritz Bajorat, 59, from Germany. Forensic examiners determined he had been dead for more than four days, AFP reported.
Fisherman Christopher Rivas and his companions found the yacht with its mast broken and much of the cabin underwater. Inside, they found photo albums, clothes, and tins of food scattered around, according to the Mirror.
The fishermen discovered the ghost ship around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday and towed it to Barobo, where authorities launched an investigation upon their arrival on Friday. One of Bajorat’s acquaintances believes he has a clue.
“He was a very experienced sailor,” a world sailor named Dieter told Germany’s BILD newspaper, according to the Daily Mail. “I don’t believe he would have sailed into a storm.
“I believe the mast broke after Manfred was already dead.”
The Express reported that no one had seen Manfred Fritz Bajorat since 2009. However, the Daily Mail quoted BILD saying a friend had contacted him on Facebook a year ago on his birthday.
Bajorat, who had been sailing the world for 20 years, separated from his wife Claudia in 2008. She had been sailing with him but passed away from cancer on May 2, 2010.
Bajorat wrote an epitaph for her and posted it on a sailing forum, according to the Daily Mail:
“Thirty years we’ve been together on the same path,” he wrote. “Then the power of the demons was stronger than the will to live. You’re gone. May your soul find its peace. Your Manfred.”
Now, Bajorat is also gone, under mysterious circumstances.
